Northwestern dominates Saucon Valley in Colonial League football showdown

Unbeaten Northwestern and Saucon Valley clash Friday night in New Tripoli for a high school football game. (CHRIS KNIGHT / SPECIAL TO THE MORNING CALL)

Of The Morning Call

Northwestern dominates Saucon in Colonial League showdown

Thanks in part to Northwestern's domination in the first four games, Tigers coach Josh Snyder had used Harry Hall, his talented junior running back, sparingly so far.

But with the meat of the Tigers' schedule looming, Snyder said that was going to change.

"Harry's anxious to get going," Snyder said earlier this week.

He did just that on Friday night.

Following a dominating offensive line, Hall ran for 236 yards and a pair of touchdowns to help Northwestern overpower Saucon Valley 39-14 in a battle of the Colonial League's last two remaining unbeatens.

Faces in the crowd at the Northwestern vs Saucon Valley high school football clash Friday night in New Tripoli. (CHRIS KNIGHT / SPECIAL TO THE MORNING CALL)

Hall, who had 55 carries in the first four games, got the ball 19 times in the first half alone and 32 in the game. He had 120 yards by halftime, including a 22-yard touchdown scamper in the final minute of the first half gave the Tigers (5-0) a 25-14 halftime lead.

He added 77 more, including the final 43, on an 83-yard scoring drive on Northwestern's first second-half possession that essentially settled the issue.

"I had great blocking all night,' said Hall, who now has 736 yards through the first half of the Tigers' regular season.

"You can give him the whole field, or you can give him an inch. Either way, he's going to make plays," senior tackle George Haddad said of Hall, who ran for just under 1,600 yards last year as a sophomore. "We haven't given Harry a really big game all year, and as a lineman, that hurt. I wanted a lot of carries for him tonight, and we were able to give them to him."

Overall Northwestern rolled up 294 rushing yards, but the Tigers added 119 through the air from quarterback Frank Dangello and receiver Cam Richardson (who threw a 26-yard touchdown pass on an end-around) for a season-high 413 yards.

Snyder had high praise for his offensive line (Haddad, Matt Shields, Jason Pechacek, Chet Karpyn, and Chris Trumbauer) and offensive line coach Dave Kerschner for their ability to make adjustments.

"Saucon didn't' show a 50 defense all year long but they came out and played it all night long, and our kids adjusted to it," he said. "That's a testament to how we practice. We practice against everything, because when you have a bulls-eye on your back, the other team's going to do anything to try to get you."

"Our big guys felt all week that we can dominate these kids, and that's what we did," Haddad said. "We got lower than them and just dominated them."

The real key was the job Northwestern did on the other side of the ball.

Saucon, which came into the game averaging just under 370 yards a game, managed just 147 Friday night. The Panthers (4-1) got 55 of those yards and four first downs on their first possession when they answered a Northwestern scoring drive with one of their own.

However, they managed just four more first downs and a mere 92 yards on their other seven possessions, two of which ended with interceptions. Saucon's second touchdown came on an 82-yard kickoff return by Justin Propsner.

Saucon's two main weapons, running Evan Culver and quarterback Zach Thatcher, were held in check. Culver, who was second in the league in rushing, finished with 57 yards on 14 carries; 31 of those yards came on his last two rushes.

Thatcher, averaging more than 100 yards a game rushing and passing, had 73 yards of offense.

"We look forward to challenges like tonight," Snyder said. "I think after the first quarter we really settled in defensively [and] suffocated them. We were able to get great pressure on the quarterback and key on a few receivers … I think they were getting frustrated."

"We knew we'd have to play near-perfect to beat them, and we'd have to have some things go our way," Saucon coach Matt Evancho said. "I don't think we executed well, and that's a tribute to them. But we fought to the end, and that's all we could ask them to do.

"We told the kids we're going to live to fight another day, and we're going to do that next week."

Meanwhile, the Tigers hope this win quieted those who look at the 1-15 record of their first four opponents.

"I hope it sent a big message," Hall said. "It didn't send any message to any of us, because we knew how we should play, how this game was going to go in our opinion and how it played out."

"I saw what people were saying and it really bugged me," Haddad said. "We're playing our butts off and just because they were 1-15 doesn't mean they weren't any good or we weren't playing well."